Ever feel guilty after polishing off a chocolate bar? What if we told you we found a guilt-free chocolate bar! No, this isn’t some kind of dieting campaign, we don’t count calories (and you shouldn’t either). We are talking about ethically and sustainably produced chocolate that you can feel good about eating!
While we would all love to believe that all chocolate is produced by a purple-clad man in a musical factory, that is sadly not the case. The world of chocolate production is far darker than we could ever imagine. The current model of chocolate production includes deforestation, animal extinction, and worker exploitation, among many other horrors.
Now, reNature and DeMendes have partnered up in a project to utilise Regenerative Agroforestry to protect the Brazilian Amazon and empower local indigenous communities.
DeMendes is a Brazilian chocolate maker producing in close cooperation with traditional communities. De Mendes prioritises respect, zeal, and kindness to the environment and to the people’s culture. His chocolates are incredibly delicious, made from hand-picked native Brazilian cocoa, with an appreciation for the partner communities, and recognition of territory and local culture.
What are they trying to achieve?
Known as the ‘golden fruit’, cocoa is considered a possible antidote to the invasion of the Northern Brazil’s indigenous lands by illegal miners. After having wiped out 15% of the indigenous population in the 80s, illegal mining has now returned to the project area polluting rivers and harming natural resources. Due to a lack of economic opportunities, many of the indigenous inhabitants are at risk of being lured into the mining activities.
With the help of agroforestry, local Ye’kwana and Yanomami community leaders will produce chocolate for international markets as an income alternative diminishing the need for the indigenous youth to collaborate with illegal miners.
An added bonus? The preservation of the forest is now incentivised. Now, we are confronting the challenge of facilitating the expansion of the indigenous agroforestry cocoa systems to ensure environmental benefits while improving existing processing facilities.
reNature’s project with DeMendes preserves the independence of the indigenous communities while helping them to maintain a healthy forest and foster a resilient source of income. Now, renature is taking the project further by expanding its reach. It has teamed up with DeMendes for the #SaveMyChocolate campaign, in order to raise awareness about the great work he is doing and to gather the funds necessary to expand the project to reach even more communities and to preserve even more forest!
Go to https://www.renature.co/savemychocolate to donate.
